


Ugly Sweater

by Carimes_treehouse



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Canon Compliant, Crack Treated Seriously, M/M, Season 4 Spoilers, and elias finds that endearing (for some reason?), elias hates that he loves peter, it's in third person but each pov has a slightly different style, more like prompt, or well. right before that, peter has embarrassed elias at the annual insitute holiday party for the last time, peter’s as insufferable as always, so:, the first half takes place between 120 and 121, the second half takes place right before 158
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:54:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22944349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carimes_treehouse/pseuds/Carimes_treehouse
Summary: Peter looks so ridiculous, Elias would divorce him right then and there. Except, a part of him finds it just a little bit endearing.They ended up divorcing anyway, but that's beside the point.
Relationships: Elias Bouchard/Peter Lukas
Comments: 12
Kudos: 78





	Ugly Sweater

Elias took in a deep breath and let out an exasperated sigh. In front of him, across their bedroom door, stood Peter, hands over his hips, with a satisfactory smile creeping on his face, his beard shifting along with it.

He looked ridiculous.

It was bad enough that he was wearing his captain hat to the annual Institute holiday party, but that was expected of him -- to be honest, Elias was impressed that he didn’t have his pipe in hand. It was Elias’ gift from their first marriage, after having used it constantly two centuries ago, when he was still referred to as Jonah--. No, what really bothered him was what he was wearing over the shirt Elias had carefully ironed the night prior and explicitly told Peter to use.

An ugly sweater. And 'ugly' was an understatement.

His face contorted with utter disgust, which only made Peter smile wider.

It was blue, with a pattern of anchors decorating its top --so far, not so abhorrent--, but the lower his eyes looked, the longer he wanted to lock him in their bedroom and not let him go with him, which, now that he thought about it, was probably the whole reason he was wearing it in the first place.

The anchors and waves of blue turned into an ugly green --and that was something, considering green was one of Elias’ favorite colors-- and a drawing of many eyes sitting on his belly. In the center of the cacophony of drawings was a simple phrase, minute enough so that normal people wouldn’t be able to read it from a distance, but Elias was not normal, and his eyesight, for obvious reasons, was keen enough to read it:

‘With my dear beloved husband’ it said, a little arrow next to it, pointing at where Elias was supposed to be standing.

Elias sighed. “You’re not wearing _that_ , are you?”

Peter stroked his beard comedically, contemplating his options as he stared up towards the ceiling. Elias wanted so badly to reach into his mind and pull the answer out, but the fog of The Lonely was too thick, and once again, he failed. Peter chuckled at Elias’ newest failed attempt at compelling him and looked down at him. His ‘haven’t you learned, already?’ was left unsaid, but his face clearly displayed it.

It was not the first time Elias wished he were just a bit taller, or Peter a bit shorter. It always felt just a bit condescending when Peter literally looked down at him, even more with that smile he was wearing. It always sent his blood pumping, and not in a good way. 

“Well, I _wasn’t…_ ” Peter’s voice didn’t even try to dissimulate his smile “But after that delightful tone, I am” the way he said the last phrase was a little too happily, but if he was being honest, that wasn’t strange of him. Everything he said, however tragic it may be, always sounded like if he was talking about one of his hobbies, which he technically was, in that specific case, since bothering Elias was always up in his priorities list. A priority list made up of only that and being alone.

He couldn’t tell whether he was lying or not. Whether he was going to wear it even if Elias hadn’t said anything, or if he was truly just messing with him and decided to actually wear it when he took the bait. Or maybe he was still kidding and he wasn’t going to actually wear it.

He sighed.

But wasn’t that the whole point? The whole thing which made him interested in Peter? Not being able to compel him? To Behold him? It was an odd sensation, truly. Like trying to see through heavy fog. If he didn’t know any better, he would’ve assumed Peter simply never had a thought in his head. But of course, that wasn’t remotely the case. He was too smart behind that stupid hat of his not to think. That is, if one discounted his utter lack of ability to simply open a search engine, let alone try to use it --Elias had figured out technology immediately and he's two centuries older than him, which is pathetic, to say the least--. It would be a lie if Elias said he didn’t intrigue him.

So many secrets in that fog-covered head of his. Technically, he guessed he could try harder to compel him. No, he Knew if he compelled him hard enough, Peter wouldn’t be able to fight it for so long and just succumb to answering his questions. He Knew that he could make this whole mystery disappear if only he wanted it to. But honestly, he didn’t .

And as infuriating as it could get sometimes to not Know exactly what Peter was thinking, or doing, or literally anything of the sort that he usually knew by just looking at a stranger, he loved him for it. For being the intelligent, yet stupid, lonely sailor who he could not figure out for the immortal life of his and he’s gotten so used to.

His anger dissipated into a smile, a genuine one, almost forgetting the reason why he was mad in the first place --almost--, and he crossed his arms, shaking his head slightly. _God, he loved that bastard so much_. Peter caught the change in his demeanor and shook his head as well, eyes rolling as if indignation had hit him, hiding a slight smile under a scoff. But Elias could see it. His smile was replaced by annoyance again.

“ _God_ ,” Elias grunted and took Peter by the arm, dragging him into the living room “Alright, you can wear it, but I swear to _God_ , Peter, oh sweet Peter, if you do anything even _remotely_ embarrassing _again_ …” Elias held up the back of his right hand to show him the seven rings in his fingers and, with his left hand, pretended to take off the most recent ring. He didn’t need to finish his sentence for Peter to chuckle.

“Like _that’s_ going to stop me,” he took Elias’ hand and kissed it with a smile still in his face “We both know it won’t last”

\---

But it did.

Oh, did it last.

Normally, they would’ve already gotten back together, but with Elias now in prison and him now in charge of the Institute, it was not as if they could just _remarry_. Besides, he had a new pawn to convert into The Lonely, and it seemed to be going well so far.

He absent-mindedly fiddled with his -- _ ~~Jonah’s~~_ Elias’-- pipe and put it in his mouth after setting it alight. It definitely looked antique, but had clearly been kept in perfect conditions. James, before turning into Elias, had clearly been cleaning and varnishing it daily. A tradition Peter had decided to maintain.

That’s when it dawned on him. _Elias had chosen him to keep it_. It had been in _~~Jonah’s~~ ~~James’~~_ Elias’ posession for two centuries and who knows how long more, and _he_ had chosen _him_.

His stomach flipped in on itself and he felt utterly _lonely_. He grinned, lips closed to hold still the pipe.

He huffed a quick smoke and put the pipe aside on a metal plate. It wasn’t clear whether it was the smoke of the pipe or The Lonely’s embrace which surrounded his head.

From his desk drawer, he pulled out a polaroid he’d taken of Elias before the institute party incident while he was distracted doing god-knows-what on his phone --probably spying on other people’s lives through these ‘social medias’ he’s heard so much of-- and he smiled a lovestruck kind of smile before plunging a sharp pencil through Elias’ chest.

_Loneliness_

_Hopefully, he soon would never stop feeling that way_


End file.
